Feb 22 Best of London Fashion Week Fall 2017

London Fashion Week further drove home the point that fashion has not escaped the holds of our global existential crisis, which is, frankly, a good thing. The question isn't whether designers are grappling to understand fashion's role in the era of Brexit and Trump, but what that fashion might look like. Some designers, like Gareth Pugh, created collections that visually manifested what getting dressed in an angry, oppressive, intolerant political system might entail.

Gareth Pugh. Photos: Yannis Vlamos/Indigital.tv via Vogue.

Despite my feeling much the same as Mr. Pugh about our situation at present, his clothes didn't represent the world I want to live in, but the one I want to escape from. Strangely, what I loved most from London Fashion Week was comparatively light, when contrasted to the heaviness of this political moment in time, and quite feminine. The takeaway might be: what's going on is troubling, we see it, we're sticking around, fighting for what we believe in, and we're going to wear beautiful clothing while doing it.

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Toga

My absolute favorite of the London shows was Toga, designed by Yasuko Furuta. What wasn't to love? The silhouettes, an abundance of brooches (pinned everywhere! even to hair!), **GLOVES**, and creative use of our anatomical real estate. I could go on. Arms, regularly constrained to our sleeves, were liberated and adorned, often asymmetrically, with gloves and fur. In the annals of sartorial expression, designers who help us think critically about how we use our bodies as canvases are always welcome. #freetheradiusandulna

Images Alessandro Garofalo/Indigital.tv via Vogue

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Simone Rocha

Simone Rocha's collection felt like a modern, worldly take on early 1900s orientalist fashion, with luxurious, embellished dresses and coats, many accented with fur. If Gareth Pugh felt like clothing to wear for closing the world off, Rocha felt like what we'd wear for moving around in it gracefully (the shoes were comfortable and the clothing loose-fitting). Was I the only one who got a strong travel vibe here? I was envisioning myself throwing on this embellished sheer, fur-accented robe, and taking a river cruise! I'll keep you posted.

Images: Kim Weston Arnold/Indigital.tv via Vogue

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Roksanda

I'm not sure I always know what resonant fashion looks like, but I know what it feels like. For me, it's clothing that I see and can almost immediately envision wearing. Not for that hypothetical river cruise, but in my every day life. That's how I felt about Roksanda Ilincic's AW17 collection. The silhouettes were feminine without being overtly so, the clothing luxurious but comfortable. Perhaps her statement on our role in today's political climate is one about the ability we women have to deftly embrace polarity? If so, her collection leads by example.

Images: Kim Weston Arnold/Indigital.tv via Vogue

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Notable mentions:

Monochromatic black, but not boring due to masterful draping and the use of luxurious silk velvet at Roland Mouret.

Photo: Yannis Vlamos/Indigital.tv via Vogue

Who knew I could fall for monochrome tangerine? Thanks @Marta Jakubowski.

Photo: Courtesy Marta Jakubowski

Note to self: try sheer black over an outfit sometime in this transitional spring weather. Write about results.

Emilio de la Morena. Photo: Alessandro Garofalo via Vogue

Only JW Anderson can make a metallic printed feathered dress work with sneakers. Also noted.

What if, instead of food, fashion was the subject of Anthony Bourdain’s humane gaze?

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style is...

Style is the answer to everything. A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing. To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without it. To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art...Style is the difference, a way of doing, a way of being done.